In letters written to her mother, the woman charged in the 2002 kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart has sought forgiveness for any pain she has caused and says she expects to spend the rest of her life in prison.

Wanda Eileen Barzee, 63, however, makes just one reference to Smart in the 12 letters obtained by The Associated Press. And she doesn't provide details about the nine months the girl allegedly spent with her and her now-estranged husband Brian David Mitchell.

The couple is charged with multiple felonies in state court and last year was indicted by a federal grand jury.

But Barzee writes of repentance only when discussing her desire to be re-baptized in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In a June 21 letter, she recounts talking to a local church leader about the steps necessary to regain her membership, which includes making a full confession.

Proud of his religion and worried about its future, Chicago dentist Max Feinberg wrote a will with an unusual catch: His grandchildren wouldn't inherit a penny if they married someone who wasn't Jewish.

His decision led to family feuds, lawsuits, counterclaims and, on Thursday, a unanimous ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court that Feinberg and his wife were within their rights to disinherit any grandchildren who married outside the faith.

"Equal protection does not require that all children be treated equally ... and the free exercise clause does not require a grandparent to treat grandchildren who reject his religious beliefs and customs in the same manner as he treats those who conform to his traditions," Justice Rita Garman wrote in a ruling that overturned decisions by two lower courts.

One disinherited granddaughter had argued it was improper for a will to set up conditions that promote religious intolerance in people's marriage decisions or even encouraged couples to divorce.

"It is at war with society's interest in eliminating bigotry and prejudice, and conflicts with modern moral standards of religious tolerance," said Michele Feinberg Trull's brief to the Supreme Court.

The court's ruling was based partly on technicalities in the way this estate was arranged. The court did not provide a broad ruling on whether similar religious restrictions would be valid under other circumstances.

A prominent human rights activist and her co-accused cannot be tried — now or in the future — on terror charges because they were beaten and tortured in jail, Zimbabwe's Supreme Court ruled Monday.

Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku said the court was issuing a permanent stay of prosecution in the case of Jestina Mukoko and eight other defendants because their constitutional rights had been violated.

Such a ruling from judges appointed by longtime President Robert Mugabe could signal a new willingness on his part to meet demands for reform from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, his partner in the country's troubled unity government. But in a country that seems to lurch from promising to perilous from day to day, trends are hard to spot.

Innocent Gonese, a member of parliament from Tsvangirai's party, said the judgment could be "the beginning of good things to come, politically," but added that scores of other party activists remain jailed or face charges.

Richard Smith, a South Africa-based human rights activist, said the ruling could show an emerging streak of independence among judges known for taking orders from Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.

Like most law firms, K&L Gates LLP faces headwinds. The recession has cut demand for many corporate legal services, including work on mergers, real estate and corporate finance. In turn, profits at firms across the country have plummeted, forcing many of them to fire attorneys, freeze salaries and shut offices.

Peter Kalis, chairman of the 1,800-lawyer K&L firm, has felt the pain first hand. He cut costs sharply this year, including firing about 40 attorneys and 200 other staff members.

But the 59-year-old West Virginia native -- a Rhodes Scholar, Yale Law School graduate and clerk for Supreme Court Justice Byron White -- hasn't curtailed his expansion ambitions.

In the last two years, he has overseen mergers with firms in Chicago, North Carolina and Texas, and he has opened offices abroad, including in Singapore, Frankfurt and Dubai. His Pittsburgh law firm now ranks among the nation's largest, with 33 offices around the globe.

And Mr. Kalis shows no signs of slowing down. "Downturns can present extraordinary growth opportunities," he says. "But if you are lost in navel gazing and you don't have your head beams on high looking down the road, you'll miss the opportunities."

A lawyer for Zacarias Moussaoui has told a federal appeals court in Virginia that the Sept. 11 conspirator is entitled to a new trial.

Moussaoui is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to helping plan the 2001 terrorist attacks. But his lawyer told a three-judge panel Friday that the plea was unconstitutional because his trial lawyers had to undergo a national security background check, which restricted Moussaoui's right to choose counsel.

Moussaoui also claims he was denied helpful evidence. A federal prosecutor said Moussaoui decided to plead guilty before that evidence could be provided.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals first heard Moussaoui's appeal in January but ordered new arguments when a panel member retired before the case could be decided.

Major publishers accused Google Thursday of "brutally" exploiting France's literary heritage as they launched a court challenge to the Internet giant's drive to scan digital copies of books and put extracts online.

Publishing house La Martiniere, the French Publishers' Association and authors' group SGDL asked a Paris court to fine Google 15 million euros ($22.09 million) and 100,000 euros for each day it continues to violate copyright by digitizing their books.

The trial caps a three-year challenge to what publishers say is the web giant's 2005 plan to create a massive online library without prior approval.

"It's an anarchic way of brutally stockpiling French heritage," Yann Colin, the publishers' lawyer, told the court.

"Digitizing is reproduction," he added. "Once it is digitized, you can't undo it."

Colin argued that the case, which targets Google's French unit, should be tried under local law as the publishers, scanned works and authors were French.

The publishers also argue that Google's massive profits are "parasitic," as they were generated from sponsored links which are presented to web surfers searching for copyrighted books.

A federal appeals court on Thursday tossed out a $5 million verdict against protesters who carried signs with inflammatory messages like "Thank God for dead soldiers" outside the Maryland funeral of a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the signs contained "imaginative and hyperbolic rhetoric" protected by the First Amendment. Such messages are intended to spark debate and cannot be reasonably read as factual assertions about an individual, the court said.

A jury in Baltimore had awarded Albert Snyder damages for emotional distress and invasion of privacy. The 2006 funeral of Snyder's son, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder in Westminster, Md., was among many military funerals that have been picketed by members of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas.

Albert Snyder's attorney, Sean E. Summers, said he and his client were disappointed.